Setting user preferences via a mobile terminal

ABSTRACT

Method, system and terminal for setting, in an information system comprising a network ( 2, 7 ) connecting user terminals ( 1 ) and one or more servers ( 4, 8, 9 ), local user preferences valid for the terminal and non-local user preferences valid for said one or more servers. A preferences setting file is downloaded from one of said servers to the relevant terminal, which is completed by the terminal user with the user&#39;s local and/or non-local preferences. Subsequently, the completed preferences setting file is uploaded to the relevant server ( 9 ). One or more preference groups (“moods”) may be assigned to the completed local and/or nonlocal preferences. The user may select one occurrence out of said preference groups, resulting in retrieval in the relevant server ( 9 ), the local and/or non-local preferences assigned to the selected preference group, and activating the relevant preferences in the terminal and the network and/or the one or more servers.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention refers to the setting of user preferences, listed in auser terminal or in an information or transmission system to which auser terminal may be connected.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are a variety of terminals that can be configured or programmed tothe personal preferences and needs of a user.

For example a computer with a graphical user interface can bepersonalized by setting a background picture, customizing color schemes,customizing event sounds and setting software specific features like theaccessibility of menus and functionality. When the computer is used forcommunication, e.g. for email, chatting or IP telephony, a user can begiven the possibility to program events like pop-up screens appearingwhen messages arrives or blocking incoming/outgoing messages based on acriteria.

Another example of such a terminal is a mobile phone, which can beconfigured through a menu. By pressing the menu button on the mobilephone a user gets the possibility to change settings related to thephone itself, change security settings, change network settings, andselect or modify profiles. Examples of settings related to the phoneitself are selecting the language of the user-interface, adjusting thecontrast of the display and adjusting the appearance of the build-inclock. Security settings are related to pin-codes, which can be set andchanged by the user. The network settings are used to set the behaviorof the mobile phone in the network. For example the user can choosewhether the mobile phone automatically selects a network based on thestrength of received communication signals or a manual selection is tobe made by the user when the network changes. Profiles are used to makemany changes in the mobile phone at once. Examples of profiles are“normal surroundings”, “silent surroundings”, “meeting” and “car”. Byselecting a profile the ring tone, ring tone volume, vibration andsettings related to the phone itself are selected at once. The user canmodify the settings in the profile.

Besides configuring and programming terminals it is also possible to leta user make changes in the network the terminal is connected to. Forexample a user with a mobile phone can change redirection settings bycalling a specific number or using a shortcut in the mobile phone,making all incoming calls being forwarded to another terminal. Anotherexample is the (de) activation of a voicemail box, which is located inthe network and can be used by a calling party to leave a message whenthe user does not answer the phone.

It can be important to technically detect the status of a terminal userat a certain moment and/or location. It is undesirable for example thata mobile terminal receives and displays an advertisement (which can bepushed to the terminal, i.e. sent to the terminal without the userrequesting it) about e.g. a special offer of snacks when the userattends a business meeting or has a romantic date. In general the factthat the user's current situation (or mode, mood or environment) cannotbe technically detected by the sending party or the network, is seen asan important obstruction for the success of pushed content delivery.Although users already become used to set their terminal to a number ofprofiles, those profile settings are local terminal settings that arenot detectable by the sending party or network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of the present invention is to enable the terminal to setboth local user preferences valid for the terminal itself and non-localuser preferences, valid for one of more servers.

Another aspect is to apply one common user interface and/or platform forthe setting of user preferences, valid for the terminal and/or thenetwork and/or external servers.

A further aspect is to load a “user preferences setting page” or thelike (e.g. by means of WAP, I-mode, etc.) from an Internet server,comprising input fields which can be used by the user to input thedesired preferences in the telecommunications and/or data network. Viathe same Internet page local terminal settings may be set, e.g. using an“Application Program Interface” (API) linked to the terminal's controlsoftware.

The user may use the “user preferences setting page” for setting,resetting or amending the user's preferences, e.g. adapted to the user's“mode”, “mood” or “environment”. By selecting the desired right “mood”,the behavior of the terminal, viz. the terminal itself and theinformation to be supplied to the user, will be applied, both within theterminal and outside the terminal, viz. by the relevant server(s).

The “user preferences setting page”—which will also called “mood page”hereinafter—thus may be used to set e.g. a “buy mode”, business mode”,“holidays mode”, “romantic mode”, etc. Each mode may comprise a group(cluster) of setting parameters, some of which relate to the terminalitself, e.g. the ring tone mode, and some of them relate to the formand/or content of information, which may or may not be sent to theterminal. Also network settings (parameters) may be incorporated in saidgroups.

The “mood page” preferable has the form of a “portal”, serving as ainterchange page via which various other information services may becalled and/or routed to deliver their content to the relevant userterminal.

FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows schematically the Internet and a mobile telecommunicationnetwork, as well as a mobile terminal.

FIG. 2 shows schematically an embodiment of a mobile terminal, which isenabled to cooperate with the telecommunication network and theInternet.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In FIG. 1 a terminal 1 may be connected to a telecommunication network2, via base stations 3. The network 2 is controlled by control means 4,including a database 5. The control means 4 can comprise a plurality ofservers, exchanges, registers and/or databases. The control means can bebased on “Intelligent Network” (IN) technology, which is fit for leanand mean adaptation of user preferences, which may be registered in therelevant database(s).

By means of a telephony or Internet interface server 6, e.g. known fromapplicant's EP2079379, the telecommunication network 2 is linked withthe Internet (“world wide web”) 7 or any other data network. Connectedto the Internet 7 are several servers 8 which may be enabled to deliverinformation in the form of graphics, text, images, sound or video. Oneserver 9 can optionally serve as “portal” for services to and frommobile terminals like terminal 1.

FIG. 2 shows schematically the architecture of terminal 1 more indetail. Shown is an antenna 10, connected to a transceiver 11, which, inturn, is connected with a terminal controller 12. Controller 12 isconnected with an API module 13, a register 14, a camera 15, aloudspeaker 16, a video display screen 17, an input module 18,comprising a keyboard 19 and a pointing device 20, and a microphone 21.For sake of clarity, the interconnections between the various modulesare not shown in FIG. 2. The example of FIG. 2 shows a mobile phone. Itis also possible to use other kind of terminals, like PDA's, organizersand mobile computers, as long as they are equipped with communicationmeans.

The terminal 1 may originate a call to another terminal via the network2. Such a call may be setup by means of the keyboard 19, the controller12, the transceiver 11, the antenna 10, one of the base stations 3 andthe network control means 4, which will setup a connection to therelevant called terminal. A call from another terminal to terminal 1,will arrive at the control means 4 in the same way, after which thecontrol means 4 will setup a connection to terminal 1 via the relevantbase station 3, guided by e.g. location information of terminal 1registered in database S. The received call will reach controller 12 viathe antenna 10 and transceiver 11, resulting in e.g. outputting a calltone via the loudspeaker 16, whereupon the terminal user may pick up thecall by pushing the relevant button on the keyboard 19.

When a user is e.g. attending a meeting, the user may have setlocally—e.g. via keyboard 19—the terminal's call tone into “buzz” mode,or the user, in another environment, may set a certain preferred ringtone, for instance some measures of the user's favorite piece of music.Besides to make a voice connection with another terminal, terminal 1 maybe enabled to communicate with Internet servers 8. To that end theterminal 1 may connect, via interface 6, the relevant portal server 9.Via portal 9 information (text, graphics, video, sound, etc.) may bedownloaded from (and/or uploaded to) one or more of the servers 8. Saidinformation is transmitted to the terminal 1 and presented to theterminal's display 17 and/or—in the case of audible information—theloudspeaker 16.

Besides setting preferences within the terminal, as discussed before,the user may set user preferences within the telecommunication network2, which settings may be registered in database 5, and/or userpreferences in the Internet domain (e.g. preferences in the portal 9and/or within (files within) one or more servers 8).

The user preferences can be set using one common (e.g. graphic) userinterface, residing in the terminal 1, to set both the local terminalrelated preferences like e.g. ring tone settings and external settings,registered in the telecommunication network and/or in the internet. Tothat end the terminal 1 comprises an API (Application Program Interface)or equivalent module 13. In general an API is a software modulecomprising a language and message format used by an application programto communicate with the operating system or some other control programsuch as a database management system or communications protocol. API'smay be implemented by writing function calls in the program, whichprovide the linkage to the required subroutine for execution. Thus, anAPI implies that some program module is available in the computer toperform the operation or that it must be linked into the existingprogram to perform the tasks.

Being connected to the Internet portal server 9, the terminal 1 may loada common setting internet page (“preferences setting page”) which may bedisplayed at the screen 17 and which includes fields which may be filledby the user with the user's preference parameters, clustered together todifferent “moods”, “modes” or “environments” (hereinafter to be called“moods”). The parameters may partly apply to local terminal settingsrelating to the terminal hardware and/or software to be registered inthe terminal's register 14. The parameters may also partly apply tosettings for the telecommunication network 2, to be registered indatabase 5. And finally, part of the user preference setting may applyto one or more Internet servers, either having the function of portal,like server 9, or not, like the servers 8.

For instance, user preference parameters for the mood “business” couldcomprise e.g.:

One or more terminal parameters e.g. setting the terminal's ring tone tobuzz or vibrate, to be registered into terminal register 14;

One or more network parameters e.g. setting the network 2, to beregistered into the network control database 5, e.g. setting that onlyone or some restricted originating callers may access the user'sterminal 1, while all remaining callers are rerouted to e.g. asecretary's telephone number or to the user's voice mail box;

One or more portal server parameters, to be registered into the portalserver, e.g. setting a preference relating to the format (font,background) of Internet pages to be displayed to the user via theterminal screen 17;

One or more content provider parameters, to be registered within theportal server 9 and/or the relevant content servers 8, e.g. setting thecontent to be downloaded to the terminal 1, e.g. relevant stock quotesor selected business news.

All those parameters are to be input in said “preferences setting page”,in this example related (and clustered) to the “business mood”. The samepage may comprise input fields in which preferences are related to othermoods, like “home”, “holiday”, “hobby” etc. All those clusteredpreferences may be input by means of one “preferences setting page”common for all “moods” or via separate “preferences setting pages” per“mood”.

All parameters are thus recorded via the “preferences setting page(s)”and transmitted to the portal server 9, in which the all thoseparameters are registered.

When the terminal user, after having transmitted his/her preferences forthe various moods to the portal server 9, the user may load and activatehis/her preferences by calling a “mood page” at the portal 9 andselecting or setting his/her mood for that moment, e.g. the mood“business”.

After the user selects and submits the mood “business” to the portalserver 9, the portal server 9 retrieves the user's preference parametersfrom the relevant “preferences setting page(s)” and activates therelevant internet related parameters within the portal 9 and therelevant linked servers 8. The parameters which are valid outside theInternet domain, e.g. in the telecommunication network 2 and/or withinthe terminal 1 itself are sent back to the terminal 1 and set in itscontroller 12 via the API module 13, which is able to read and interpretthe contents—especially the parameters—of the non-internet preferencessent back from the portal 9, to Interact with the controller 12 and toset the terminal settings like e.g. the ring tone settings etc. Besides,the API module 13 may output via controller 12 settings for thetelecommunication network. Those network settings—which normally have tobe set by the user by inputting such settings e.g. via the keyboard19—will be forwarded, by the controller 12, to the network control means4, to be registered in the relevant network database 5.

Registering and clustering—via completing the electronic form called“preferences setting page(s)”—of various “mood” related local (terminal)and non-local (network and/or server) settings enables the terminal userto adapt his/her terminal, network and server preferences to his/hermood, mode or environment in a trice, e.g. by selecting the relevantmood (cluster) and submitting it to the portal 9, which portal 9subsequently retrieves all previously input parameters assigned to theselected mood. The parameters are used to adapt the portal's and therelevant server's settings to the user's “mood” and—after sending backthe relevant parameters to the terminal 1—to set, via the terminalcontroller 12 the settings of the terminal 1 and/or the network 2.

It is noted that, to prevent the necessity to send back local andnetwork parameters from the portal to the terminal and/or network, itmay be advantageous to register those parameter within the terminal 1and network 2 respectively instead of in the portal server 9. To thatend the local and network parameters are read from the “preferencessetting page” form(s) when the user completes them. When all preferenceparameters are filled in, the form is to be submitted to the portal 9.The API module 13 may be programmed thus that, on submission of theparameters by means of such a “preferences setting page” form, the API13 intercepts the submitted parameters and registers locally, inregister 14, the terminal and/or network parameters, labeled with(clustered to) the relevant mood item (e.g. “business”). To act in thedesired way when, later on, the user decides to activate another mood,the API module 13 is programmed so that, when the user submits, by meansthe “mood page” called from the portal 9 e.g. the (new) mood “business”,The API 13 intercepts that new mood item (viz. “business”) and retrieveslocally, in the register 14, the local and network parameters assignedto the label “business”. The terminal activates the locally registeredparameters, while the Internet related parameters are retrieved byportal 9, which also activates those parameters. As the terminal andnetwork parameters already are present in the terminal 1 it will be nolonger necessary to send those parameters back to the terminal.

For completeness it is noted that it might be preferred to have an(additional) API module 22 within the network control means 4, enablingthe control means 4 to intercept, register and afterwards retrieve indatabase 5 parameters which are valid for the user related preferrednetwork settings, related to the various user moods like “business” etc.In that case the terminal 1 could intercept, register and retrievelocally the relevant terminal parameters using register 14 and APImodule 13, the network control means 4 could intercept, register andretrieve the relevant network parameters using database 5 and said APImodule 22, while only the internet related parameters should beregistered and retrieved in the portal server 9 and/or content servers8.

It is noted that the preference setting pages or mood pages might alsobe called and completed by means of e.g. a data terminal or computerconnected to the internet 7, bypassing the relevant mobile terminal 1.The relevant mood pages can be secured against unauthorized access.Further, some mood page parameters could relate to billing aspects, e.g.billing accounts: by selecting “business” as mood the usage of theterminal, telecommunication network 2 and/or the internet relatedservices of the servers 8 and/or 9 could be billed using a businessaccount, while when the user selects a private mood like “holiday” thecosts for using the terminal, telecommunication network and/or internetrelated services could be attributed to a private user account.

1. User terminal comprising control means (12), a user interface (17,18)and means for interaction between the terminal and one or more servers(4,8,9) via a network (2,7), the terminal comprising means (12,13),cooperating with the user interface, for both setting local userpreferences valid for the terminal itself and non-local userpreferences, valid for said one of more servers (4,8,9).
 2. Userterminal according to claim 1 in which said means are fit fordownloading and displaying a preferences setting file from one of saidservers, which is to be completed via said user interface by the userwith the user's local and/or non-local preferences, and for uploadingsaid preferences setting file completed with said local and/or non-localpreferences to the relevant server (9).
 3. User terminal according toclaim 2 in which said means are fit for assigning one or more preferencegroups to the completed with local and/or non-local preferences.
 4. Userterminal according to claim 3 in which said means are fit for selecting,via the user interface, one occurrence out of said preference groups,for retrieving, in the relevant server (9), the local and/or non-localpreferences assigned to the selected preference group, and foractivating the relevant preferences in the terminal and the networkand/or the one or more servers.
 5. User terminal according to claim 4,comprising an Application Program Interface (13) fit for activating thepreferences in the terminal.
 6. User terminal according to claim 4,comprising an Application Program Interface (13) fit for remotelyactivating the preferences in the network (2).
 7. Information system,comprising a network (2,7) connecting user terminals (1) and one or moreservers (4,8,9), one or more of said the terminals and one or more ofsaid servers comprising means for mutual interaction via a network(2,7), and means for both setting local user preferences valid for theterminal itself and non-local user preferences, valid for said one ormore servers.
 8. Information system according to claim 7 in which saidmeans are fit for downloading a preferences setting file from one ofsaid servers to the terminal, for completing the preferences settingfile with input from the user via a user interface with the user's localand/or non-local preferences, and fit for uploading said preferencessetting file completed with said local and/or non-local preferences tothe relevant server (9).
 9. Information system according to claim 8 inwhich said means are fit for assigning one or more preference groups tothe completed local and/or non-local preferences.
 10. Information systemaccording to claim 9 in which said means are fit for selecting, by theuser via the user interface, one occurrence out of said preferencegroups, for retrieving, in the relevant server (9), the local and/ornon-local preferences assigned to the selected preference group, and foractivating the relevant preferences in the terminal and the networkand/or the one or more servers.
 11. Information system according toclaim 10 in which the terminal comprises an Application ProgramInterface (13) fit for activating the preferences in the terminal. 12.Information system according to claim 10 in which the relevant networkcomprises an Application Program Interface (22) fit for activating thepreferences in the network.
 13. Method for setting, in an informationsystem comprising a network (2,7) connecting user terminals (1) and oneor more servers (4,8,9), both local user preferences valid for theterminal and non-local user preferences valid for said one or moreservers, comprising steps of downloading a preferences setting file fromone of said servers to the relevant terminal, completing the preferencessetting file with input from the terminal's user via a user interfacewith the user's local and/or non-local preferences, assigning one ormore preference groups to the completed local and/or non-localpreferences, uploading said preferences setting file completed with saidlocal and/or non-local preferences to the relevant server (9),selecting, by the user via the user interface, one occurrence out ofsaid preference groups, retrieving, in the relevant server (9), thelocal and/or non-local preferences assigned to the selected preferencegroup, activating the relevant preferences in the terminal and thenetwork and/or the one or more servers.